Khalid Albaih

– Get inspired by examples of how social media empowers individuals to fight against censorship and oppression.

– Get the story of how Khalid’s ‘Khartoons’ exploded in popularity across and outside the Internet during the Arab Spring.

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Khalid Albaih is a renowned political cartoonist and documentary director. He has been featured in media outlets such as the Guardian, NY Times, the BBC, HuffPost and Al-Jazeera due to his influential cartoons that have been shared by thousands of people throughout social media the past few years. His cartoons deal with topics ranging from U.S. politics and race relations in America to injustice in Sudan and throughout the Arab world.

Show up to this inspiring talk and learn why the pen is truly mightier than the sword.

The "sharing revolution"

Khalid has been fighting for freedom of speech in Sudan, where the media has been oppressed and censured for decades, and those who have fought against the government’s censorship have been muted and even killed.

Following this very paranoid climate, one app has been a crucial tool for sharing the stories of the oppressed; WhatsApp has given way to a “sharing revolution” in Sudan, where comedians, singers, poets, artists and journalists have found a platform to share their work, uncensored. It has also provided the older generation of oppressed writers and political commentators a new platform. It’s a welcome hint of freedom after decades of press repression.

During the refugee crisis, many people fled by sea, and therefore many refugees also filmed their experiences confronting life at sea and the people who saved them. Gathering this video material, Albaih has created the film Bahar (Sea in Arabic). The refugees used Google Maps to get to the EU and used WhatsApp and Facebook to keep in contact with their families back home. There is an immense load of videos and material from this journey made crossing the water.

Albaih: “I spent around a month saving and searching for these videos from WhatsApp groups and on YouTube. My friend who is also a refugee in the US and studies music at Berkeley in Boston made the score.”

With the film, and with his cartoons, Albaih is a strong new voice, utilizing social media in order to shed a light on how we consume news and social media, and informing the rest of the world how social media is challenged in the Arab world.

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